Hi all,
This is only my second post (my first one disappeared somewhere before I could post it) so please bear with me. I'm 50 years old and have worn glasses for 40 years and played pool just as long.
My eye problems are: astigmatism in both eyes, floaters, spots, dry eyes, one eye looks higher than the other which causes double vision, nearsightedness, for the last 5 years I've needed reading glasses, slight glaucoma in one eye, and I think that's all---that's enough I'd say.
Anyway, because of glare from the pool light on the inside of my glasses, I thought I'd give contacts a try about 5 years ago. Well, it's been quite a ride determining what works and what doesn't.
The first problem I forced myself to overcome was double vision due to one eye looking higher than the other. This took almost a year. An eye specialist for this problem (he's a ping-pong player and really took an interest in my pool playing--he spent 3 hours with me!) told me that doing the mono-vision thing ( that yobogua does) wouldn't work for pool, as long cut shots would be impossible to see properly. So I quit that strategy and am gald I did. He told me that billiards was probably the best exercise I could do to correct this problem, but that it would probably return to me when i reach 65 or so---we'll see (get it?--we'll SEE---somebody stop me!).
The second problem was finding the right nearsightedness correction.
I, too, have an opthamologist, but he doesn't understand that I want to see the pool table and don't really care about 20/20 vision. After all, I spend probably 95% of my time indoors and rarely need to see eagles on the horizon. I originally wanted lasik, but he is verrrry conservative (that's good, btw) and won't do my eyes (yet, anyway). So his contact lady and I have been trying various daily contacts to find my best depth of field for pool.
My left eye is supposed to be -5.75and the right is supposed to be -5.25 (for 20/20 vision). I've been wearing -4.25 in the left and -3.75 in the right, and this provides clear vision from 2 to about 12 feet---perfect for pool. It's just good enough for driving, but I may get glasses to make up the difference for those tired, late night drives. The added benefit here is I rarely need reading glasses anymore---whoopee!
I also have settled on a .75 astigmatism correction in both eyes. It isn't perfect but my brain has overcome the fact that my left eyes sees my cue as curved to the left and my right eye sees my cue as curved slighty to the right. When I first played this way, I thought my cue had become warped. This took maybe 6 months to overcome.
He also put in punctal plugs that "dam up" two of the four drains in my eyes. This I would recommend to anyone who hangs in smoky bars. It's painless and takes about 10 seconds to put in. They're like teeny tiny funnel shaped plastic plugs that are left in my eyes forever (or until the doc wants they out). I still sometimes use drops, but rarely anymore.
I sometimes use a special herb to keep the glaucoma pressure down (went from the high 20's to the high teens). I can't tell you the herb, but you can probably figure it out.
For the spots and floaters (imagine looking through a moving window screen), I just sometimes have to shake my head to move them out of my line of sight.
My point is basically the same as Gerald's: My eyes are what they are, but my mind belongs to me and I have complete control over it. This is how I beat those hawk-eyed punksters. They can see better than I; I can think better than they.
Thanks for reading and excuse me if this post is redundant.
Jeff Livingston
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